| Author: | Hua, Ying |
| Title: | The construction of corporate identities by Chinese and American airlines on social media : a cross-cultural multimodal study |
| Advisors: | Feng, Dezheng William (ENGL) |
| Degree: | DALS |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Corporate image -- Management Airlines Social media Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities |
| Pages: | 393 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | A study of corporate identity construction by Chinese and American airlines on social media from a cross-cultural multimodal perspective directly informs the social practices of promoting Chinese enterprises’ intercultural communication for international credibility, optimizing the increased visibility and interactivity of social media for corporate image-building and facilitating Public Relations (hereafter PR) management of the competitive airline industry especially over the critical period of Covid-19. In this regard, despite increasing empirical interest in the areas of corporate (organizational) identity construction, cross-cultural communication on social media, social semiotic multimodality on social media and systematic registerial modelling (Matthiessen, 2009, 2015a, 2015b), systematic social semiotic studies of the construction of corporate identities on social media, comprehensive social semiotic studies of cross-cultural communication on social media, intercultural social semiotic studies of multimodality on social media and applied research using registerial cartography are very limited. Addressing these issues, the present study aims to theoretically and empirically contribute to the construction of corporate identities by Chinese and American enterprises on social media by adopting a cross-cultural multimodal perspective built on the multimodal semiotic approach of registerial cartography. The present study proposes an analytical framework based on registerial cartography to capture the construction of corporate identities on social media as discursive construction of situated contextualized roles by corporations on social media at macro-level configuration of activity patterns (what) and at micro-level multimodal realizations of activity patterns (how). Having chosen the airline industry and randomly collected 400 posts of four major Chinese airlines on the China-based SNS of Sina Weibo and 400 posts of four major American airlines on the US-based SNS of Facebook for a one-year span, this study makes a quantitative and qualitative analysis at three levels: first, investigating their macro-level configuration of activity patterns and micro-level multimodal realizations of activity patterns by drawing upon Matthiessen’s (2009) socio-semiotic activities, Halliday & Matthiessen’s (2014) systemic functional grammar (hereafter SFG), Kress & Leeuwen’s (2006) visual grammar and Feng & O’Halloran’s (2013) visual metaphor as the primary analytical tools; second, interpreting the situated contextualized roles construed by macro-level configuration and micro-level realizations of activity patterns that delineate the construction of corporate identities; third, explaining the cross-cultural issues that influence the construction of corporate identities. Analysis shows that Chinese and American airlines construct similar and differential corporate identities on social media. Both sides construct similar corporate identities as realistic, subjectified, involving, equalized or dramatic presenter of positive information about corporate achievement, staff deed and service announcement in reporting-oriented posts, as objectified, intersubjective positioning, dialogistic or metaphoric self-discloser of personal facework values/experiences in sharing-oriented posts, as personal, emotional or multi-sensorily recreational promoter of product/brand’s symbolic and utilitarian appeals in recommending-oriented posts. To varying degrees, Chinese airlines tend to construct corporate identities as more impersonal, authoritative, objective and monologic presenter of their powerful industry leadership, virtuous staff, and secure service who dramatizes more figuratively and emotionally, whilst American airlines as more personal, equalitarian, subjective and dialogic presenter of their voluntary social contribution, esteemed staff, people-oriented service who dramatizes more compositionally and logically in reporting-oriented posts. Chinese airlines tend to construct corporate identities as more axiological, intra-vocalized, subjective and dialogically contractive self-discloser of their faithful adherence to professional, moral and social duties who metaphorizes more through visualization and concretization, whilst American airlines as more positivist, extra-vocalized, objective and dialogically expansive self-discloser of their benevolent commitment to stakeholder’s, communal and universal services who metaphorizes more through grammaticalization and generalization in sharing-oriented posts. Chinese airlines tend to construct corporate identities as more informational, socio-emotional, manipulative and self-serving promoter of their brand/product’s symbolic values who entertains customers more tangibly and perceptually, whilst American airlines as more personal, logical, natural and other-serving promoter of their brand/product’s utilitarian values who entertains customers more experientially and resonantly in recommending-oriented posts. The entanglement of convergences and divergences in the construction of corporate identities by Chinese and American airlines reflects the transculturality of brand communication in relation to global consumer culture, social media affordances and dimensions of cultural variability. Theoretically, the analytical framework of the study contributes to corporate communication, PR management, marketing as well as cross-cultural communication research. Practically, the major findings of the study enlighten the PR management/marketing practitioners on the discursive strategies for corporate identity management and the Chinese practitioners on the discursive strategies for international/intercultural communication on overseas SNSs. Pedagogically, the study informs the multiliteracies pedagogy of Business Communication course and provides authentic materials for the course. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7552.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 13.49 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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